Introduction
In the 1950's, Ryan Aeronautical Company developed the Ryan Firebee. The Firebee was a series of target drones. It was one of the first rocket propelled drones and was used as a targeting missile. As the Cold War heightened, different technologies were being requested for the potential that the United States goes to war with the Soviet Union.
Methods
For the Firebee to work, it is rocket propelled like other missiles to increase the speed and range of the drone. They were mostly equipped onto a specifically-crafted aircraft that was suited to carry these drones. Figure 1 shows what the Firebee looks like on one of those aircraft.
As observed, the Firebee is small and agile and mostly models other aircraft. Once launched by the aircraft, an operator was able to control the Firebee and maneuver it to fly towards specific targets. The Firebee is definitely the first "stepping stones" towards modern-day guided cruise missiles. To this day, this model was the most widely used target drone ever built.
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| Figure 1: The Firebee is on the left, while attached onto JD-1 Invader. |
Discussion
As briefly mentioned, the Firebee is one of the most widely used target drone ever, and without a doubt, it has an impact on the UAS industry. The Firebee is one of the first UAS on record. Engineers at the time were able to learn ways to create a version of aircraft where a pilot was not necessary. Even though UAS is deeply rooted within the military sector, it took years before it was on the commercial sector. Since there was that lag between the two industries, it allowed the technology to mature before it was opened up to the general public.
Conclusion
The use of the Firebee was monumental in terms of the development of UAS. Ryan Aeronautical Company created a revolutionary target drone because it was used with various purposes. Since it was widely used, it allowed for the Firebee series to better fit some of those uses and continue to be a staple. Through those efforts, it caused it be the most used target drone to date. This was beneficial to the UAS industry because it helped to show various uses that can be applied to UAS and how it can be beneficial. The Firebee definitely helped to shape the industry that we see today.
References
Ryan Firebee. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2020, from
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Ryan_Firebee
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